Information Dashboard Design

Dashboards have become a popular means to present critical information for rapid monitoring, but few do this effectively. When designed well, dashboards engage the power of visual perception to communicate a dense collection of information efficiently, with exceptional clarity. This can only be achieved, however, by applying visual design skills that address the unique challenges of dashboards. These skills are not intuitive; they must be learned. The author teaches a comprehensive set of effective design practices through examples that reveal what works, what doesn't, and why.

Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. Although dashboards are potentially powerful, this potential is rarely realized. The greatest display technology in the world won't solve this if you fail to use effective visual design. And if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights. Don't let your investment in dashboard technology go to waste. This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. "Information Dashboard Design will explain how to: Avoid the thirteen mistakes common to dashboard design Provide viewers with the information they need quickly and clearly Apply what we now know about visual perception to the visual presentation of information Minimize distractions, cliches, and unnecessary embellishments that create confusion Organize business information to support meaning and usability Create an aesthetically pleasing viewing experience Maintain consistency of design to provide accurate interpretation Optimize the power of dashboard technology by pairing it with visual effectiveness Stephen Few has over 20 years of experience as an IT innovator, consultant, and educator. As Principal of the consultancy Perceptual Edge, Stephen focuses on data visualization for analyzing and communicating quantitative business information. He provides consulting and training services, speaks frequently at conferences, and teaches in the MBA program at the University ofCalifornia in Berkeley. He is also the author of "Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten. Visit his website at www.perceptualedge.com.

Teaches you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. This book explains how to: avoid the thirteen mistakes common to dashboard design; provide viewers with the information they need quickly and clearly; and create an aesthetically pleasing viewing experience. Dashboards have become popular in recent years as uniquely powerful tools for communicating important information at a glance. Although dashboards are potentially powerful, this potential is rarely realized. The greatest display technology in the world won't solve this if you fail to use effective visual design. And, if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights. Don't let your investment in dashboard technology go to waste. This book will teach you the visual design skills you need to create dashboards that communicate clearly, rapidly, and compellingly. "Information Dashboard Design" will explain how to: avoid the thirteen mistakes common to dashboard design; provide viewers with the information they need quickly and clearly; apply what we now know about visual perception to the visual presentation of information; minimize distractions, cliches, and unnecessary embellishments that create confusion; organize business information to support meaning and usability; create an aesthetically pleasing viewing experience; maintain consistency of design to provide accurate interpretation; and optimize the power of dashboard technology by pairing it with visual effectiveness.

The definitive reference book with real-world solutions you won't find anywhere else The Big Book of Dashboards presents a comprehensive reference for those tasked with building or overseeing the development of business dashboards. Comprising dozens of examples that address different industries and departments (healthcare, transportation, finance, human resources, marketing, customer service, sports, etc.) and different platforms (print, desktop, tablet, smartphone, and conference room display) The Big Book of Dashboards is the only book that matches great dashboards with real-world business scenarios. By organizing the book based on these scenarios and offering practical and effective visualization examples, The Big Book of Dashboards will be the trusted resource that you open when you need to build an effective business dashboard. In addition to the scenarios there's an entire section of the book that is devoted to addressing many practical and psychological factors you will encounter in your work. It's great to have theory and evidenced-based research at your disposal, but what will you do when somebody asks you to make your dashboard 'cooler' by adding packed bubbles and donut charts? The expert authors have a combined 30-plus years of hands-on experience helping people in hundreds of organizations build effective visualizations. They have fought many 'best practices' battles and having endured bring an uncommon empathy to help you, the reader of this book, survive and thrive in the data visualization world. A well-designed dashboard can point out risks, opportunities, and more; but common challenges and misconceptions can make your dashboard useless at best, and misleading at worst. The Big Book of Dashboards gives you the tools, guidance, and models you need to produce great dashboards that inform, enlighten, and engage.

Tips, techniques, and trends on how to use dashboard technology tooptimize business performance Business performance management is a hot new management disciplinethat delivers tremendous value when supported by informationtechnology. Through case studies and industry research, this bookshows how leading companies are using performance dashboards toexecute strategy, optimize business processes, and improveperformance. Wayne W. Eckerson (Hingham, MA) is the Director of Research for TheData Warehousing Institute (TDWI), the leading association ofbusiness intelligence and data warehousing professionals worldwidethat provide high-quality, in-depth education, training, andresearch. He is a columnist for SearchCIO.com, DM Review,Application Development Trends, the Business Intelligence Journal,and TDWI Case Studies & Solution.

"Teaches simple, fundamental, and practical techniques that anyone can use to make sense of numbers." - cover.

Focusing on designing the right dashboards for use in an organization, this timely, full color book reveals how to successfully deploy dashboards by building the optimal software architecture and dashboard design. In addition, it describes the value of this popular technology to a business and how it can have a significant impact on performance improvement. A unique collection of more than 120 dashboard images are organized by category. One of the chapters provides a step-by-step description of the key performance indicator (KPIs) design process. One of the appendices contains more than 1,000 examples of KPIs to help design the content of dashboards. The book also describes all the steps in a dashboard implementation and offers related advice. Nils Rasmussen (West Hollywood, CA) is cofounder and Principal of Solver, Inc. Claire Y. Chen (Long Beach, CA) is a Senior Business Intelligence Architect at Solver, Inc. Manish Bansal (Irvine, CA) is Vice President of Sales at Solver, Inc.

With the information in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, you can learn the best practices for managing business performance using Office PerformancePoint 2007 and related Microsoft tools. The specific end-user scenarios begin by describing the business requirements and objectives and end with detailed technical guidance for implementing performance management solutions. Leverage PerformancePoint with other key technologies, including SharePoint Server, SQL Server Business Intelligence tools and Office Excel and Excel Services. Use PerformancePoint for common performance management scenarios, including scorecarding, dashboarding, reporting, analysis, planning, budgeting and forecasting.